We have had our phone service through Verizon for more than four years now (in two different states) and we have had no complaints. We travel to visit family and sometimes take day trips in our area, too, and we have never had any problems with reception.
They have different packages in different areas. When we moved, we had to change our package slightly because the package we had wasn't offered here. We have a family plan and we pay $69.95 for two phone lines with 700 shared minutes and unlimited night, weekend, and "in" (meaning calls to other Verizon members). Pretty much all of our family has Verizon, so this really works for us. We don't have any of the extra options like text messaging. We just pay for them as we go because we don't use them very often.
My experience with their customer service has been good when we have called them on the phone. When I first activated my new number here, I started getting all of these crazy text messages with different sports scores (sometimes 40 a night). I hadn't signed up for this and I didn't know how to get it stopped! They worked with me to block the number that they were coming from and removed all of the charges for the messages I had received.
The experience with their customer service in the actual store location has been hit or miss. It is packed every time we go in there and they seem to have a hard time managing the crowds. We prefer to just deal with them over the phone.
Another thing that I love about them is that you can go online and see how many minutes you have used for the month, view your bill, make changes to your account, and even see the service manual for your phone. You can choose online billing or paper billing and you can set up automatic payments or pay online, which is very convenient.
They offer very good deals on phones when you first set up an account (often buy one, get one free if you get a family plan). Then, you are eligible to get a new one every two years when you renew your contract. When we renewed this last time, we got a buy one get one free offer, they offer a phone credit, and then there was a rebate, so we actually ended up making $50 off the "purchase" of our phones, which were new Motorola E815s.
If you want to get more information and see what plans and phones are available in your area, I definitely would recommend checking out their website at: www.verizonwireless.com.
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